"It feels good to be part of something bigger than yourself."
Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 is the sequel to Barbie in a Mermaid Tale. It was released in 2012. In the Barbie filmography, it is preceded by Barbie: A Perfect Christmas and followed by Barbie as the Princess and the Popstar.
Merliah heads to Australia for the ultimate surfing competition. She finds a rival in Kylie Morgan, the second-best surfer around, and must choose whether to stay and surf or accept her responsibilities as a princess, spinning Merillia to keep the ocean alive.
When the evil mermaid Eris escapes from her whirlpool with the unwitting help of Kylie, Merliah must stop her before Eris takes Calissa's throne and gains Merillia-spinning powers herself—but with Eris possessing the power to make nightmares real, it'll be harder than before!
This movie contains examples of:
- The Ace: Merliah, and her rival, Kylie, are both champion surfers and the best on their respective teams.
- Always Someone Better: Merliah is better than Kylie, which sparks the plot due to the latter's jealousy. Even when Kylie cheats and wins their first meet, Merliah gets all the attention.
- Amazon Brigade: The Ambassadors are a team of girls.
- As You Know: An Oceana news report explains the events of the first movie.
- Big Bad: Eris, who returns from the first movie.
- Brick Joke: The lead Stargazer vows revenge on Eris despite his shrunken state, and returns at a critical moment to bite her nose.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Kayla and Xylie are nowhere to be found in the sequel.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Hadley is very spacey, often makes out-there comments, and thinks a disgusting-tasting gumbo is delicious.
- Darker and Edgier: Despite Eris being deposed in the previous movie, the scenes of the characters' worst nightmares are pretty intense, and it has Merliah in the position of possibly losing her legs forever. There's also two scenes where Kylie almost drowns.
- The Dragon: Alistair is one to Eris; he helps free her from her whirlpool prison by tricking Kylie.
- Equivalent Exchange: For someone trapped in Eris' whirlpool to escape, someone else must enter it.
- Forced Transformation: Eris gains legs, which, to her, is the worst thing that could happen to her.
- Friendly Rival: Kylie becomes more friendly to Merliah.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Kylie throwing Merliah her necklace while underwater, knowing she'll drown if she does but that Merliah needs it to become a mermaid.
- The High Queen: Queen Calissa is the beautiful, strong-willed queen of Oceana.
- Kick the Dog: Eris does it by tricking Kylie into freeing her, imprisoning her in her place, and forcing everyone to live their worst nightmares.
- Lame Rhyme Dodge: This exchange as Alistair insults Eris behind her back.Alistair: "And then I'll have the power to make Merillia and the ocean will be mine! Hahahah!" Ptuh! Not that you could've done any of it without my help.
Eris: WHAT DID YOU SAY?!
Alistair: Uh... erm... Kelp! I can't do anything without my kelp. (shoves a finful kelp into his mouth)
Eris: Wise choice. Stick with that. - The Lifestream: Merillia is the ocean's life force, which only the royal family can spin. In this movie, Merliah learns how to spin it.
- Married to the Job: Merliah is married to her hobby, surfing. This causes conflict when she chooses going to Australia's surfing competition over seeing her mother and accepting her princess responsibilities.
- Multinational Team: The Ambassadors seem to represent different countries.:
- Selena represents Russia/Eastern Europe.
- Mirabella represents Brazil/South America.
- Katrin represents South Korea.
- Renata represents Africa.
- In the dolls, Kylie is the Ambassador representing Australia, even though she is not one in the movie.
- Only Sane Man: Fallon, who's more down-to-earth than the spacey Hadley.
- Orcus on His Throne: Eris is this in the final battle because leaving the throne means she wouldn't gain the power of Merillia.
- Primal Fear: Eris' nightmare powers prey on these, as they often involve deep-set fears like being in a confined space, turning ugly, or becoming terrified of everything.
- Kylie absentmindedly takes off Merliah's necklace and almost drowns at one point.
- The Rival: Kylie is Merliah's surfing rival.
- Sadistic Choice: Merliah must choose whether to lose her legs and stop Eris or keep them and let Eris take over again.
- Scenery Porn: The Australian coast is beautiful, as are the underwater scenes.
- Second Place Is for Losers: Kylie and Merliah believe this at first.
- Second Place Is for Winners: Merliah comes to believe this, realizing not everything has to be a competition. She proves this by not being upset when Kylie wins.
- Servile Snarker: Alistair mocks Eris by saying that if it weren't for him, she'd have never been freed, and he often makes fun of her behind her back while dutifully serving her.
- Shock and Awe: The Stargazers, who are a pack of electric eels.
- Silk Hiding Steel: Queen Calissa, who doesn't like to fight, but will to protect the ocean.
- This Is Reality: Kylie protests to Alistair, a talking fish, that she doesn't believe in magic necklaces. He lampshades this and she concedes.
- Took a Level in Badass: Eris, who can still create whirlpools and can now cause people to live their worst nightmares. She demonstrates this power by using it on a pack of huge, scary eels.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Georgie Majors when she tells Merliah to take off her necklace, and Hadley when she unknowingly lets Kylie steal it.
- "What Do They Fear?" Episode: This happens when Eris forces everyone to live their worst nightmares.
It feels good to be a part of something bigger than yourself.
— Barbie
